The ice crew came out a moment later, gathering up hats and dumping them into giant rolling bins. Because it was a home game, there were a lot of hats, and it took a while.
In the meantime, Thad panned his camera over the stands. People were still celebrating, some of them in costumes, a lot of them drunk, because Halloween games were always like that. Parents were home taking kids trick or treating, so games like this tended to run toward the older, rowdier crowd.
The Harriers had picked up on the energy early in the game, or maybe it was Graham’s good mood fueling them, because they’d been notching goals like they were going out of style. They were up 5-1 as they set up for the final few minutes of the game.
Although Ottawa must have known they were beaten, they put up an attempt at fighting back, creating the pressure and urgency that had been lacking in the earlier periods.
It didn’t do them much good though, not when the Harriers were playing like this, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, they’d won the game 6-1 off a goal from Tom Bass, with fifteen seconds left on the clock.
The tunes were bumping in the locker room when Thad slipped inside for media. As locker room DJ, Tanner had created the night’s playlist andMonster Mashfilled the air.
Thad laughed, watching Tanner, Kady, and Jesse dancing to it—Jesse had been in fine form tonight, stopping pucks with ease and breaking out his dancing skills on the ice ateveryopportunity—and the happy mood in the room was contagious.
Several of the coaches appeared and so did Gavin and Finn. Tanner turned down the volume as Gavin nodded a greeting at Thad.
He then gave a little speech, congratulating Graham on his hat trick and the entire team on a game well played. Finn did the same.
Coach Hoyt gave Graham the third puck—the date and hat trick written on it in silver permanent marker by the equipment manager—to save for his collection.
Thad recorded it all, including when Graham got first star of the nightandthe team’s player of the game award. Graham made a short speech thanking the guys, deflecting the praise and turning it around on his teammates who had set him up for the scoring chances, because of course he did.
Thad felt another wash of affection for Graham. That was hisboyfriend.
As Graham wrapped up his speech, pumpkin and skeleton confetti rained down over his head—because Jesse Webber sure did love his confetti cannons. That seemed to be the cue for everyone else to leave though and the coaches and upper management quickly exited the room.
Once they were gone, the music got cranked up again and the dance party heated up again.
After Thad finished recording, he lowered his camera and glanced over at Rusty, one of the equipment managers who was waiting for guys to finish so he could do his work and get home for the night.
“That ever drive you guys crazy?” he asked. “Having to clean up after it?”
Rusty shrugged. “Nah. Not really. Envelopes of cash always mysteriously appear after, so no one minds the extra work.”
Thad smiled.
On the whole, the phrase “a good locker room guy” tended to drive Thad a little nuts because of how overused it was in the hockey world, but Jesse certainly was adored by everyone around.
Honestly, Thad got it.
Jesse was a likeable guy, warm and friendly. Everyone on the support staff said he’d totally turned the team around. Not just because of his skill in net but because of the way he’d lifted the whole team’s mood.
Not to mention Connor’s.
Thad could see it now.
He watched, smiling and a little bit envious as Jesse danced his way over to Connor’s stall, stripped out of his bulky goalie gear but still wearing damp base layers. He grabbed Connor’s hand and pulled him to his feet, looping an arm around him and shimmying until Connor smiled and bent down to brush their lips together as they swayed to the music.
On the other side of the room, Rafe sat in his stall, beaming up at Mickey who had his fingers threaded through Rafe’s hair. He tugged a little as he said something to him, Rafe’s eyes sliding partially closed.
Thad didn’t record either of those things—that was private, team-only stuff—but he did feel an ache he wasn’t able to go over and congratulate Graham the way he wanted, with a kiss and a promise to reward him later.
Instead, he called out, “Five minutes to media,” in warning, because as much as he was enjoying the show, no one wanted to be sporting an obvious erection around the media.
Next up was the media scrum.
Thad lingered a little, talking to the guys who weren’t being interviewed about their plans for the evening. The event wasn’t mandatory, but pretty much everyone was heading to O’Neill’s for the after party anyway.
Out of the corner of his eye, Thad caught a glimpse of Graham laughing with the reporters about something.
